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Media Forum: Is UKOM a web revolution?

Will the system take online advertising to a new level, Alasdair Reid asks.

It's easy to be dazzled by Google's success. Far too easy, as it turns
out. Too easy for the Internet Advertising Bureau, for instance. Too
easy, also, for some City analysts and a majority of media
commentators.

This was rather poignantly demonstrated last week, when the IAB put out
a press release revealing that, in the six months to the end of June,
the UK internet advertising market was worth £1.75 billion.

The outcome was predictable. "Internet overtakes television to become
biggest advertising sector in the UK," one typical headline blazed.
Well, up to a point it has.

But, looked at another way, the growth of online advertising has been
rather stunted. Google has changed our lives - but it will never make a
brand famous. It will never help generate desire - not in a marketing
sense, at any rate. Google occupies a netherworld of directory and
classified advertising, a dreary back office, once you strip out the
shock of the new functionality.

And another announcement last week only served to remind us all of a
rather more interesting truth about the online medium - the painfully
slow progress it has made, across the past decade, in developing the
display advertising formats that will attract the mainstream FMCG
advertisers. Perhaps partly explaining why online display advertising
makes up just 18 per cent of online ad revenues.

Yet, at long last, many years after this project was first mooted, the
UK Online Measurement Company, an industry body backed by the IAB with
data provided by Nielsen, is to provide panel-based audience data that
will make it possible for advertisers and their agencies to plan online
campaigns targeting specific audiences. In other words, it will provide
the same sort of planning currency that Barb provides for TV and the
National Readership Survey provides for national newspapers. And now
comScore plans to launch its own system too.

Will these drive the medium to a new and more sophisticated level? The
UKOM system is a move in the right direction, Will Smyth, the head of
digital at OMD UK, argues. He adds: "It's no secret media owners'
agencies want FMCG companies more involved online, especially now there
are more video advertising opportunities. The methodology looks
thorough, the panel size looks robust and Nielsen has a good track
record. But what it won't address are issues like engagement and how
people feel about brands (in the online environment)."

However, David Fletcher, the head of MEC MediaLab, says his natural
instinct is to be cautious until the data comes on stream. He says: "It
has to be an improvement on what we have. If it is, it will certainly
allow for more normative conversations with clients. For agencies, a
central component in all new-business conversations is the subject of
integration. The client wants to be reassured that you can join all the
various pieces together - and it's true that, with digital, there isn't
the fluency that you can get from using the comparison points of Barb
and the NRS."

Will Phipps, the head of planning at the7stars, shares some of those
reservations. He says: "It's a first step - and we have to welcome that.
But reach and frequency data won't on their own address some of the
barriers perceived by FMCG advertisers, which need to be reassured about
the value that online can deliver. There still isn't a deeper
understanding about how digital display works - and it continues to be a
concern that this still isn't being covered off by the likes of the
IAB."

But Scott Thompson, the head of digital research at Starcom MediaVest
Group, is slightly more upbeat. Yes, it's just a first step; and it's
also true that to sell the digital domain as a platform for
packaged-good categories, planners need to move beyond relatively crude
measures of reach and frequency.

On the other hand, this initiative has to be welcomed. He says: "The
fact UKOM will be compatible with IPA TouchPoints 3 will also make this
an invaluable tool in understanding and planning online within
cross-media brand campaigns."

YES - Will Smyth, head of digital, OMD UK

"It will allow the traditional approach to planning media to be
translated into online. This will be of particular interest to
packaged-goods companies - and that's something that everyone
wants."

MAYBE - David Fletcher, head of MEC MediaLab

"It's evidence of the maturing of the medium. That said, we'll have to
see if we really get the data this promises. What looks good on paper
doesn't always deliver. It will have to involve a step-change over what
is currently available."

MAYBE - Will Phipps, head of planning, the7stars

"While access to data can only improve planning, measures of exposure
don't provide the silver bullet. Reach and frequency are the oldest of
metrics, but understanding what is effective is the only true metric we
should strive for."

YES - Scott Thompson, head of digital research, Starcom MediaVest

"The establishment of a universally accepted system for online audiences
is an essential first step for brand advertisers to be able to make the
most of online spaces. We can now move on to 'who' rather than 'how
many'."